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* The NEW Music Biz {2.0} * - Word of South: My Block Forum

The 'New' Music Business...Music Business 2.0....whatever you wanna call it, the music business as you know it is dead.

This is a trial thread so that we can get our own 'Music Business' section.

So if you view it & don't reply, it helps no one... We will focus on new & innovative marketing/business strategies & ideas.

As well as spotlighting the playmakers making these moves.

(which won't be too many people in the 'Rap World'...LOL)

These are the 2 most prominent schools leading us into the new era of Music Business, so if you'd really like to learn more in-depth I'd suggest signing up for some classes at one of these. Full Sail would be best served in-person, as they have some of the highest quality, state-of-the-art equipment in the country.

They have classes for everything from movie scoring to digital 3D rendering animation studios...Berklee is all online and is very good if you can't make it in-person to one of these schools, I'd highly recommend it as I took classes there myself. Full Sail (Orlando, FL , some Online also) No link ? BerkleeMusic (Mainly Online, Headquarters in Boston, MA) No link ?

Most of you probably never even knew about most of the things in this list even though 75% of it happened within the last year.... Quote: : 10 Major Milestones In Modern Music Marketing In no particular order: No link ? 1.

Seth Godin writes " No link ?

" way back in 1999 pointing the way towards a new era of artist and fan relationships. 2.

No link ? offers indie and d.i.y.

Artists a home to reach a wider audience on the net. 3.

The No link ? parlay internet pre-release buzz into the fastest selling debut album in UK history. 4.

OK GO proves the power of YouTube with an ultra-low budget "treadmill" video " No link ?

" No link ? 5. No link ?

Tears down the last barriers to distribution offering low flat fee no strings attached access to the worlds top digital stores. 6.

Radiohead releases " No link ?

" asking fans to pay want they want for the download. 7.Trent Reznor grosses No link ?

In first week sales by offering fans options from $5 to a $300 limited edition package of his latest Nine Inch Nails release "Ghosts". 8.

Jill Sobule No link ?

Recording her new album raises more than $80,000. 9.

David Byrne & Brian Eno release a new collaboration via No link ?

. While more evoluionary than revoltutionary, this was one of the first well planned and executed releases that took full advantage of modern music marketing techniques with No link ?

. No link ? 10. No link ?

Made No link ? on Twitter proving music marketing potantial of micro-blogging platform. No link ?

I BRING TO YOU THE END OF iTUNES...

" No link ? " .... Quote: : No link ? Swedish music service Spotify generates larger revenues for the record companies than Apples music store iTunes. [Apple's founder Steve Jobs and Spotify's founders Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon]Related news: No link ? No link ?

No link ? No link ? After a decade of falling sales of records, the Swedish music industry is once again headed for brighter times as more consumers turn to legal alternatives and revenues start to increase. Last year 14.7 million albums were sold in Sweden, down a third from 22.1 million albums ten years ago.

The first half of this year, though, sales of physical records were up 30 percent and revenues 9 percent, according to the Swedish Recording Industry Association.

The largest increase was, not surprisingly, in digital sales that swelled 57 percent. There are two factors behind the rapid increase in legal sales.

First; No link ? , allowing record- and film companies to track down people suspected of illegal file share, has resulted in a 30 percent fall in the country's total web traffic as fewer use illegal services such as No link ?

. Secondly; the legal alternatives has become far better.

Swedish Spotify, a service legally offering instant access to millions of tracks, has more than one million members in Sweden and is promptly spreading across the globe. According to record label executives, Spotify - launched last year has already become more important than Apples music store iTunes. iTunes is going really well, but Spotify is growing rapidly.

There are signs that a large number of illegal downloaders are turning to Spotify, said Mark Dennis, head of digital sales at Sony in Sweden, to the TT news wire. Also in terms of revenues Spotify has overtaken iTunes. In five months from the launch Spotify became our largest digital source of income and so passed by iTunes, said Per Sundin, head of Universal in Sweden.

Its a fantastic development explained by the fact that Spotify really has exploded. Last month Spotify No link ?

To Apple's iTunes App Store.

If approved, iPhone users would be allowed to stream Spotify playlists on their handsets.

The investors hope Spotify will attract more paying users if Apple allows the service to be used on iPhone, Financial Times writes. It's also planning No link ?

, potentially backed up with $50 millions from a group of high-profile investors including Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's charitable foundation. The Swedish music company has more than six million across Europe.

Record labels such as Sony BMG, Universal Music, Warner Music, EMI and Merlin No link ?

Of Spotify. http://www.swedishwire.com/business/687-spotify-overtakes-apples-itunes AND NOW.... Quote: : Spotify Launches iPhone And Android Mobile Services By Kate Holton September 7, 2009 | LONDON (Reuters) - Spotify, the much-hyped European digital music service, has secured a deal to launch a mobile offering on Apples iPhone, iPod Touch and phones using the Android platform, it said on Monday. Swedens Spotify said a mobile application was now available for its premium subscribers in the UK, Sweden, Spain, France and Norway on the three devices, and in Finland for owners of the iPhone and iPod Touch. The application will allow premium users to access millions of tracks from the service, previously only available via a computer, wherever they go. Spotify has won plaudits from the music industry, which has been hammered by piracy, for offering a better and smoother alternative to illegal sites.

It has more than 6 million users in Europe and over 5 million tracks available. Users of the service can either listen to music for free and in exchange for watching adverts, or pay a premium fee of 9.99 pounds ($16.37) a month to avoid the ads. This is a hugely significant day in Spotifys short history, said Gustav Söderström, director of portable solutions at Spotify.

Since our launch last October, weve worked hard to provide our users with a high quality service that gives them access to whatever music they want, whenever they want it. (Reporting by Kate Holton;

Editing by Rupert Winchester) No link ?

JUST ADDED... Quote: : Spotify Adds Offline Listening to Desktop By No link ?

October 2, 2009 | Categories: No link ? Spotify, our favorite online music-streaming jukebox, has just added offline music to its desktop version, bringing it into line with the excellent but flawed iPhone version. Spotify is a piece of software that lets you play pretty much any music you like.

It already keeps a secret cache on your computer and uses that to serve music to other users.

Think legal BitTorrent for music, but with an instant-on that makes iTunes look even more sluggish than usual. The iPhone version will let premium users (people who pay 10 or £10 per month for the ad-free service) store up to 3,333 tracks on their devices for offline listening.

The latest desktop iteration of Spotify has just gone offline, too, with the same track limit.

This is wonderful news, and means that Spotify could replace iTunes for all but applications and podcasts for most people. It makes a great deal of sense on the back-end, too.

If you already store gigabytes of cached music to make things more responsive, why not make those gigabytes available to the user?

And of course you still have access to the gazillions of tracks in the catalog when you are online. The service is still unavailable to US users, who must be getting more and more jealous as the cool features pile on.

Pretty much as jealous as I am of you guys having Google Voice already.

Make sure to check out the in depth coverage of the Spotify phenomenon by the handsome Eliot Van Buskirk over on our sister blog, Epicenter. No link ?

[Spotify]

Why The Baker Should Not Be Running The Bakery And Other Tips For Entrepreneurs By Jim Hopkinson September 14, 2009 | Daniel Odio is co-founder and COO of No link ?

, but beyond that, hes an entrepreneur and gadget geek with more gear in his social media travel bag than Carrot Top.

Daniel sat down for an interview on The Hopkinson Report Marketing podcast.

An excerpt of this interview is below, or No link ?

Or No link ? . Jim Hopkinson : First and foremost, youre an entrepreneur.

You live it. You breathe it.

You have a bag full of gadgets.

So, whats it like being an entrepreneur? Daniel Odio : Being an entrepreneur is often romanticized.

People say, Wow, youre an entrepreneur, but the reality is… its a huge sacrifice.

I dont think people realize how big a sacrifice it is, but its also very rewarding.

Paul Graham, who is kind of like a hero of mine, says, Being an entrepreneur is like being punched in the face every day, but working at a company is like being waterboarded. JH: So do you think that anyone can be an entrepreneur? DO: Yes I do,but theres a big but.

And the but is that they have to get over their fears.

Those fears are what keep most people from being able to take the leap.

Its hard to find those around you that will be understanding enough of your crazy sacrifices. JH : What are some tips for people that are just starting out? DO: So if you want to become an entrepreneur, theres a theory from the book The E-Myth which basically says, the baker should not be running the bakery.

What they mean by that is, people think, for example, Oh, I love to bake, I should open a bakery!

But running a bakery is a completely different skill set than baking.

They think if I start a bakery, Im going to be able to do what I love.

And thats not true.

Yes, maybe youll be able to do it some of the time, but guess what?

You have to be sweeping the floors and doing the accounting and finding the customers and doing the marketing and firing people, and its just so much more than what you love. But when youre ready, its a matter of jumping in and testing markets.

Dont think, Oh my gosh.

Its got to be perfect.

I always say, Perfectionists are very imperfect with their time.

A perfectionist will never get something out the door;

And as an entrepreneur, time is your biggest enemy.

Youre doing it all yourself.

If you run out of time, youre going to fail.

So, you have to start putting out prototypes and iterating early.

Put out something and let your friends give feedback. Quote: : JH : Whats another tip? DO: When I want to have a reporter write about something and Ive gotten into the front page of the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Business Week this is how Ive done it.

I will find reporters that are already writing about whatever it is that Im doing, the same industry, the same general trends.

I will find a specific article that a reporter wrote about, and Ill send them an email.

Its very important how you construct the subject line.

I say: Jim, re: your article on X, Y, Z plus thoughts So thats the subject line. Youre using the persons name, so they know that you have some level of personalization instead of some mass e-mail Re: makes people feel like youre already involved in a conversation with them about it your article lets them know youre familiar with their work plus thoughts intrigues them as to what you had to say about their article Quote: : JH: Alright, so that is getting to reporters, what about getting into businesses? DO: As an entrepreneur, you are always trying to talk to people that dont have time to talk to you.

If you start at the top, and can convince a CEO you have something of value, they will send an email to the right person, and they will respond because when the CEO emails you, you jump.

Right? JH: So how do you find any CEOs e-mail address and what do you say? DO: Heres the trick.

Most companies have a press department, right?

And the press person always gives out their email address because thats their job.

Lets say I was going to try to figure out who the CEO of IBM is and what their email address is.

So I would go to Google, and I would type, site:IBM.com press What Im doing is Im looking for the keyword, press on the website: IBM.com.

That tells me where their press release section is.

Then I go to a press release, and I find out Jane Doe is the media relations person.

And its jane_doe@us.ibm.com .

So, its usually the same thing for the CEO.

So you just do first name _ last name @ the company name.com .

Ive found that very short emails, 1- to 3-sentences, are short enough that they can take action on it.

Quote: : JH: So what are some of the other social media tools that you use to get the word out? DO: Putting videos up is an excellent way to communicate your message to thousands of people.

I also transcribe those videos into text, so that Google will be able to capture them for Search Engine Optimization.

I found a person to do the transcription by putting an ad up on Craigslist.

I got so many responses, that they got in a bidding war with each other, so now I have a great person that does it for 15 cents per minute.

So I could transcribe a 30-minute podcast for you for less than $5. I have a suction cup in my car on the windshield where I can put my camcorder, and I can actually do a video podcast while Im driving.

I mean were talking about maximizing your time here right, because you have to do 20 jobs at once.

The second thing is blogging.

Lets say that you get emailed the same question over and over again.

In my past life, I was a real estate broker, so Id get questions like Whats a HUD 1 or What type of offer should I make?

Anytime youre in a job where youre writing the same answer over and over again by e-mail, stop.

Instead, create a blog;

Instead of spending 15-minutes writing that email, spend three hours to compose a really great answer, with more detail than you would ever go into via email.

Then every time you get that question, you just send a link to the blog.

Check out the rest of Daniels tips: Which contact management system he uses, and how he integrates it with Twitter Thoughts on the future of mobile How and why he video podcasts from his car View the full transcript or podcast on No link ?

I'd love to see a music biz section...not only is it hepful, but it'll keep a lot of those topics in there and let this just be for straight music....leon, make this happen!

I've read about a couple of these previously.... Although i wouldnt try the 9 Inch Nails method with my artist being a hip hop artist ...

We could drop a classic and might get $500 in donations And Spotify...

Thats new to me...

I'd like to see this made into a section as well...

As well as bring back the Indie Section...

Also that OK Go's hip ho p equalivent is being done as well...

Aka Booty Shaking videos... If you know some females (IRL on online) that have an ample rear and/or nice dancing abilities and you got a club-type track, have them dance to it and post it to Youtube...

Great promotional tool..

Some of the dance troupes on youtube also charge to do it (or for free if they pick your song up first)

Quote: : Also that OK Go's hip ho p equalivent is being done as well...

Aka Booty Shaking videos... If you know some females (IRL on online) that have an ample rear and/or nice dancing abilities and you got a club-type track, have them dance to it and post it to Youtube...

Great promotional tool..

Some of the dance troupes on youtube also charge to do it (or for free if they pick your song up first) that is a pretty good idea Quote: : Although i wouldnt try the 9 Inch Nails method with my artist being a hip hop artist ...

We could drop a classic and might get $500 in donations And Spotify...

Thats new to me...

I'd like to see this made into a section as well ...

As well as bring back the Indie Section...

Yes, this def needs its own section.

One thats visible from the main page just like the Previous Interviews are... Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) is a GENIUS...here's some very good info that could be put to use as he talks specifically about New & Upcoming Artists... Quote: : ORIGINAL POST: I posted a message on Twitter yesterday stating I thought The Beastie Boys and TopSpin Media "got it right" regarding how to sell music in this day and age.

Here's a link to their store: [ No link ?

] Shortly thereafter, I got some responses from people stating the usual "yeah, if you're an established artist - what if you're just trying to get heard?" argument.

In an interview I did recently this topic came up and I'll reiterate what I said here. If you are an unknown / lesser-known artist trying to get noticed / established: * Establish your goals.

What are you trying to do / accomplish?

If you are looking for mainstream super-success (think Lady GaGa, Coldplay, U2, Justin Timberlake) - your best bet in my opinion is to look at major labels and prepare to share all revenue streams / creative control / music ownership.

To reach that kind of critical mass these days your need old-school marketing muscle and that only comes from major labels.

Good luck with that one. If you're forging your own path, read on. * Forget thinking you are going to make any real money from record sales.

Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY.

As an artist you want as many people as possible to hear your work.

Word of mouth is the only true marketing that matters. To clarify: Parter with a TopSpin or similar or build your own website, but what you NEED to do is this - give your music away as high-quality DRM-free MP3s.

Collect people's email info in exchange (which means having the infrastructure to do so) and start building your database of potential customers.

Then, offer a variety of premium packages for sale and make them limited editions / scarce goods.

Base the price and amount available on what you think you can sell.

Make the packages special - make them by hand, sign them, make them unique, make them something YOU would want to have as a fan.

Make a premium download available that includes high-resolution versions (for sale at a reasonable price) and include the download as something immediately available with any physical purchase.

Sell T-shirts. Sell buttons, posters...

Whatever. Don't have a TopSpin as a partner?

Use Amazon for your transactions and fulfillment.

[ No link ? ] Use TuneCore to get your music everywhere.

[ No link ? ] Have a realistic idea of what you can expect to make from these and budget your recording appropriately. The point is this: music IS free whether you want to believe that or not.

Every piece of music you can think of is available free right now a click away.

This is a fact - it sucks as the musician BUT THAT'S THE WAY IT IS (for now).

So... have the public get what they want FROM YOU instead of a torrent site and garner good will in the process (plus build your database). The Beastie Boys' site offers everything you could possibly want in the formats you would want it in - available right from them, right now.

The prices they are charging are more than you should be charging - they are established and you are not.

Think this through. The database you are amassing should not be abused, but used to inform people that are interested in what you do when you have something going on - like a few shows, or a tour, or a new record, or a webcast, etc. Have your MySpace page, but get a site outside MySpace - it's dying and reads as cheap / generic.

Remove all Flash from your website.

Remove all stupid intros and load-times.

MAKE IT SIMPLE TO NAVIGATE AND EASY TO FIND AND HEAR MUSIC (but don't autoplay).

Constantly update your site with content - pictures, blogs, whatever.

Give people a reason to return to your site all the time.

Put up a bulletin board and start a community.

Engage your fans (with caution!) Make cheap videos.

Film yourself talking.

Play shows. Make interesting things.

Get a Twitter account.

Be interesting. Be real.

Submit your music to blogs that may be interested.

NEVER CHASE TRENDS.

Utilize the multitude of tools available to you for very little cost of any - Flickr / YouTube / Vimeo / SoundCloud / Twitter etc. If you don't know anything about new media or how people communicate these days, none of this will work.

The role of an independent musician these days requires a mastery of first hand use of these tools.

If you don't get it - find someone who does to do this for you.

If you are waiting around for the phone to ring or that A & R guy to show up at your gig - good luck, you're going to be waiting a while. Hope this helps, and I'll scour responses for intelligent comments I can respond to. TopSpin Media info: [ No link ?

] (disclaimer) This was written on a bumpy Euro-bus ride across the wilderness - may ramble a bit but I think the point gets across. UPDATE 1: Thanks for the insightful comments already - when I get a moment (and a reliable internet connection) I'll respond to some of your very valid points.

Please keep in mind - these were just some thoughts I quickly wrote down and posted and not meant to be a complete guide by any means.

I've neglected to get into publishing and some other things.

I'll update pretty soon. UPDATE 2: Here's a message from Ian Rogers of TopSpin [ No link ?

] UPDATE 3: Here's a few responses - more to come when I get time. Bandcamp [ No link ?

] This looks excellent to me.

I have not used it but it appears to be great.

This would cover your digital distribution of files and the collecting / amassing of your database.

Looks like you'd still need someplace to handle fulfillment of merchandise / physical goods (like the Amazon link above). Pay-what-you-want model This is where you offer tracks or albums for a user-determined price.

I hate this concept, and here's why. Some have argued that giving music away free devalues music.

I disagree. Asking people what they think music is worth devalues music.

Don't believe me?

Write and record something you really believe is great and release it to the public as a "pay-what-you-think-it's-worth" model and then let's talk.

Read a BB entry from a "fan" rationalizing why your whole album is worth 50 cents because he only likes 5 songs on it.

Trust me on this one - you will be disappointed, disheartened and find yourself resenting a faction of your audience.

This is your art!

This is your life!

It has a value and you the artist are not putting that power in the hands of the audience - doing so creates a dangerous perception issue.

If the FEE you are charging is zero, you are not empowering the fan to say this is only worth an insultingly low monetary value.

Don't be misled by Radiohead's In Rainbows stunt.

That works one time for one band once - and you are not Radiohead. Why put something on iTunes for a price fans can get it from your site for free?

Won't it piss people off? Do it and don't worry about it.

Lots of people apparently shop at iTunes exclusively and that's where they get their music.

They are generally not the people that would be mad to discover they could have gotten the same record (at a better bit-rate) for free elsewhere.

We put The Slip up at nin.com for free at all fidelities and STILL sold a fairly large amount of copies at iTunes for $9.99.

At the time iTunes did not allow variable pricing (I don't know what the deal is now). My Flash comments I don't hate Flash, just go easy on it and avoid anything that takes time to load - ESPECIALLY your front page. Managers / booking agents / small labels Any or all of these may be good for you - or not.

Here's a truth: nobody knows what to do right now, me included.

The music business model is broken right now.

That means every single job position in the music industry has to re-educate itself and learn / discover / adapt a new way.

Change can be painful and hard and scary.

If any of these entities we're discussing are interested in you, ask them about their strategies IN DETAIL.

None of them know for sure what to do.

Some of them have an idea of how to negotiate these waters.

Most of them don't.

If you are young and use the internet, you know more about your audience than they do - for sure.

This is a revolution and you can be a part of it.

The old guard is dying, if you have good ideas - try them. Bottom line - before getting involved with anyone else, ask yourself what it is they can clearly bring to your table and is it worth their cut.

Do they know what they're talking about, and does their strategies match yours? I have not gotten into the basics which I believe are self-evident: believe in what you do, do the best work you can, work hard, practice, practice more, find your voice, hone in on it, take chances, play live (if applicable), practice more, keep believing in yourself and prepare for the long haul. No link ?

Yeah... and my artist has quicly become more internet savvy with the young ladies and making them music fans than I am It shouldnt be THAT hard to convince 1 or 2 to promote our music via Youtube I mean shoot...

*still shakes head* ( Click to show/hide ) No link ?

Its all about networking and using the online networking tools to your advantage, unfortunately most artists take this for granted and/or don't know how to use it right

Quote: : Gripp its all about networking and using the online networking tools to your advantage, unfortunately most artists take this for granted and/or don't know how to use it right man you dont know how many artists we are working with that STILL dont have a Twitter, Facebook or Myspace page?

Those are REQUIRED...

Like they are too cool or something for the "internet"...

Quote: : Seeqpod-like SongBeat 360 Charges for Search, Not Music By No link ?

September 18, 2009 | 2:55 pm | Categories: No link ?

, No link ? , No link ?

, No link ? , No link ? No link ? Most paid music services charge you for downloading or streaming songs.

Not SongBeat 360.

Instead, the recently relaunched service charges a 1.5-cent credit each time you search for music, allowing you to play or download up to 50 of the songs returned by your search without paying again.

Each new account comes with 50 free search credits to get you started;

After that, youd need to plunk down $15 for another 1,000 credits. No link ?

, which reappeared in this new form late last month after disappearing in February following a lawsuit from Warner Music Group and other labels indexes 3 million-plus songs from various blogs and websites and presents them in a unified application the company says is available in all countries.

It reminds us of a micropayment-based version of No link ?

, the excellent playable search engine for music that was No link ?

By label lawsuits (also spearheaded by Warner). SongBeat 360 differs from the web-based SeeqPod in that it allows both streams and downloads, and by charging for search.

But its future is murky nonetheless at this point, none of the money it collects goes to artists or labels. Currently there are no royalties paid, admitted SongBeat CEO Claudio Fritz-Vietta.

We are well aware of the fact that this is an issue that needs to be negotiated about, and are sure that we can come to an agreement. Maybe hes right, and the music industry will see this innovative, paid search feature as a way to make money from the free music most of us are already listening to anyway.

I predict it will happen right after flying unicorns descend from the sky to solve the Courtney Love/Guitar Hero No link ?

. The application, which incorporates 14 open source technologies and runs on Adobe Air (Linux, Mac, Windows), offers several nifty features: Fast search a flip-through interface reminiscent of iTunes Search that turns up accurate results even for obscure artists The ability for bands to submit music A Twitter button for alerting the world to songs you like Local live events harvested from Last.fm through its API Digital booklets with pictures, reviews and biographies A ticker tape of the most popular searches by other users Free promotional space for artists and labels to use on their artist pages A bookmarking feature that lets you hang artists on your virtual poster wall On the downside, songs dont load quite as fast as they do in Spotify, and theres no way to sort search results by artist. Fritz-Vietta estimates that his service will contain about 8 million songs by the end of the year perhaps not coincidentally, the same as in iTunes.

Hes been in contact with some artists and labels and characterizes their reaction as mixed. They know that they have a huge problem with all their free content out there which is not stoppable, Fritz-Vietta said, so they need to find a way to control this uncontrollable content.

We want to offer them a container a safe environment to give access to any content out there. And it works really well, for the most part, letting you keep any music you downloaded during your 50 free searches (files are saved as MP3s on your hard drive).

The only thing that will not work [after the free trial] is searching for music, explained Fritz-Vietta.

We believe the access to music is what will be paid for in the future [and] this is why we charge for the access and not the individual song. If this sounds interesting, we suggest checking it out soon, because SongBeat 360 may not be available in many countries a year from now given the way these things usually go.

For now, SongBeat 360 headquartered on the British Virgin Island of Tortola, with offices in Hong Kong is up and running. Paying for search and only paying 1.5 cents for each one appears to be a new model for music.

The labels inevitable resistance will be ironic, in a way, because at its core SongBeat 360 is trying to get people to pay for content thats freely available on the open web. See Also: No link ?

No link ? No link ?

No link ? No link ?

No link ? No link ?

No link ? No link ?

No link ? No link ?

Another new music program with an interesting way of making money....charging for searches instead of the individual downloads

Quote: : Forrester to Music Industry: Its the Consumer, Stupid By No link ?

October 1, 2009 | Categories: No link ?

, No link ? No link ? Click image to enlarge. The music industry has come a long way in the past decade towards embracing the consumer: abandoning DRM for single-song downloads, releasing interactive applications, launching remix contests, streaming music to phones, and allowing video sites like YouTube to No link ?

. But musics institutional disdain for its consumers persists, according to Forrester Research, which today released a No link ?

Called Music Product Manifesto: The Product Features That Will Save Recorded Music, by analyst Mark Mulligan.

The report lists six fundamental consumer rights that the suits should keep in mind.

Theyve been made before, but they bear repeating, because the industry continues to overemphasize the business part of the music business. Forresters list includes the right to great consumer experiences first (and business models second), the right to unique music experiences, the right to share in the creation process, plus other rights centered around sharing, fair use, and the ability to communicate with like-minded fans from within the product. As obvious as some of this stuff may be, Forrester makes some great points and by great, I mean points that I agree with like the one about how No link ?

, and that No link ?

, which encourage fans to pay attention to music rather than letting it play in the background, are a necessity in the short attention span age. This isnt a fight to be the iTunes killer rather, its to be a P2P killer and an apathy killer.

Reads the report.

File sharing is ingrained in young consumers music consumption behavior, and older consumers are simply falling out of the habit of buying music.

To compete against this axis of digital music evil and truly differentiate themselves, new music products must offer excitement and uniqueness.

This has been said before, but it bears repeating: the labels need to sell consumers something they dont already have. Forresters report goes beyond vague recommendations by including mock-ups of what the ideal music product would look like (see image above).

Much of Mulligans idealized music product already exists, albeit in scatter-shot fashion.

Its not too hard to find most artists music, photos, live show videos, music videos, lyrics, fans, forums, games, and (in isolated cases) No link ?

, in just a few clicks. But hes dead right about current music products falling way short of offering all of this stuff in one package, be it a smartphone app or something that runs on No link ?

And that more cooperation between labels and device manufacturers is the only way to make that happen. No link ? No link ?

No link ?

Quote: : The Album Is Dead, Long Live the App By No link ?

August 4, 2009 | Categories: No link ?

, No link ? , No link ? No link ? The iTunes music store sells single songs at approximately the same price, with artist presented in more or less the same way. Apples app store, however, is still somewhat like the wild west ( No link ?

), where the rules are being made up in real time.

Artists and labels can sell music alongside other digital offerings through the app store at any price from zero to $999.99. As No link ?

Last summer, this creates an opportunity for artists and labels to distribute a new type of product, especially because the app store concept is spreading to No link ?

. On Monday, six of the 20 most recently submitted music apps to appear in the App Store featured a single artist: Jason Carver, Jessica Harp, Jimmy Cliff, John Butler Trio, Kadence, or The Cribs.

Each showcases music videos, photos, news, photo-jumble games, concert listings, and/or community features that let fans share photos with each other.

And all of them were made with iLikes iPhone app toolkit as was Ingrid Michaelsons app, pictured to the right. Since iLike launched the service in May, about 250 of the over 300,000 artists with access to iLikes dashboard feature have launched customized iPhone apps through the system. Were encouraged by the positive response our create-your-own-app platform has generated, and this is only the beginning, said iLike CEO Ali Partovi.

(The company also announced a new version of its Local Concerts app on Tuesday, with concert listings based on your music library, push notification for shows, maps to venues, and concert information sharing.) These artist-specific apps, which labels No link ?

Develop in-house, place a constantly-updating tattoo on fans phones.

Its like having a music subscription, but in the sense of a fan club, rather than in the sense of subscribing to music in general as one would with Rhapsody. Many of iLikes music apps are free and promotional.

Other apps contain full songs, and cost money. Dave Dederer, former singer and guitarist for the Presidents of the United States of America and current Melodeo business development vice president, released one of the first of these, which charged No link ?

. His company sells another $3 app containing streaming versions of top 100 hip hop songs in the iTunes store ( No link ?

). The app store broke the rules for selling music through iTunes, and the ramifications of that are beginning to be felt.

Now that iLike has allowed app creation to scale across hundreds of thousands of bands, and other mobile platforms are emulating Apples modular app concept, the artist-specific app could in addition to being No link ?

Become a formidable music format in its own right. If that happens, the idea of buying a bundle of music wont die with the album it will survive with the app. No link ?

Quote: : Nine Inch Nails iPhone App Extends Reznors Innovative Run By No link ?

April 6, 2009 | Categories: No link ?

VIDEO LINK: No link ? LOS ANGELES Trent Reznor was backstage one afternoon last summer, fooling around with his iPhone to stave off boredom before a show, when he realized that fans standing in line outside were broadcasting photos from the scene using their iPhones. So he took the obvious next step: Using No link ?

, the same Twitter app the fans were using, he started sending out photos from backstage.

And so an idea was born. "We started thinking, Hey, this could be pretty cool," Reznor recalls.

A few days from now, the results should be up on Apples App Store for anyone to use. The free Nine Inch Nails app, scheduled for release as soon as it gets final approval from Apple, is a mobile window on all things NIN: music, photos, videos, message boards, even thanks to a GPS-enabled feature called Nearby the fans themselves. Nearby is "kind of like Twitter within the Nine Inch Nails network," says Rob Sheridan, Reznors long-time collaborator.

"You can post a message or a photo by location, and if youre at a show you can see conversations between other people who are right there." Fans have had their curiosity stoked by hints about the iPhone app that have shown up on Reznors Twitter feed. "Were all waiting for it," says Brandon Dusseau, a Milwaukee-based web designer whos one of the founders of No link ?

, one of the groups leading unofficial fan sites.

"Im sure it will get tons of downloads, and Im hoping it will be a really cool resource.

But all I know is, its coming out soon." In an exclusive interview at Reznors home, a coolly modern structure high above the Westside region of Los Angeles, Reznor and Sheridan previewed the new app and explained how it fits in with their plans for survival in a post-label world. The iPhone app is the culmination, at least for now, of a process that began a year-and-a-half ago, when Nine Inch Nails succeeded in extracting itself from its contract with Universal Music Groups Interscope label. "When we found out wed been released it was like, Thank god!" says Reznor, trim and beefy in black jeans and a black T-shirt.

"But 20 minutes later it was, Uh-oh, now what are we going to do?

It was incredibly liberating, and it was terrifying." Since then, Reznor has pioneered a new, fan-centered business model that radically breaks with the practices of the struggling music industry.

His embrace of "freemium" pricing, torrent distribution, fan remixes and social media seem to be paying off financially even as they have helped him forge deeper connections with the Nine Inch Nails faithful. Its something he never could have done before, even on an indie label. "Anyone whos an executive at a record label does not understand what the internet is, how it works, how people use it, how fans and consumers interact no idea," he declares.

"Im surprised they know how to use e-mail.

They have built a business around selling plastic discs, and nobody wants plastic discs any more." Meanwhile, the entire system that for a lucky few turned those discs into hits rock radio, MTV, music mags, CD megastores has crumbled, and label execs have no idea where to turn.

"Theyre in such a state of denial its impossible for them to understand whats happening," Reznor says.

"As an artist, you are now the marketer." And the only marketing vehicle that makes sense is the net.

Reznor and Sheridan had used it successfully before, in the No link ?

They created with No link ?

To explain NINs 2007 album, Year Zero . But what else should they do?

The Radiohead experiment offer downloads online and ask people to pay what they want struck him as an invitation to be insulted. So after selling music for nearly 20 years, Reznor decided to give it away.

He would expand NINs website into an all-inclusive resource fans could use to find not just tour dates but photos, video, music "a one-stop shop for every bit of information you could ever want," he says.

Everything in the shop including No link ?

, his most recent album would be free. "Ive said it before and Ill say it again: I dont think music should be free," Reznor says.

"But the climate is such that its impossible for me to change that, because the record labels have established a sense of mistrust.

So everything weve tried to do has been from the point of view of, What would I want if I were a fan?

How would I want to be treated?

Now lets work back from that.

Lets find a way for that to make sense and monetize it." Over the past year, No link ?

Has quietly evolved into a series of interlocking services designed to deliver maximum benefit to the fans at minimal expense to the artist.

To build it out, Reznor decided to use off-the-shelf resources Blogger, Twitter, FeedBurner, Flickr, YouTube rather than trying to duplicate what other people had already created.

"Theyre going to do a better job than we are," he explains, "and theyre going to have a lot more resources to put into it." "Were using what people are already using every day anyway," adds Sheridan, a smaller figure with a three-day growth of beard and pale, wolf-blue eyes.

"Its media on the fans terms, how they want to use it, instead of trying to be like this" he wraps his arms around his torso as if trying to hold himself in "which is the old-media strategy." Under the circumstances, it made little sense to try to manage what went up on the site. Why would they, when they had an army of people whod relish the job?

"Well never outdo a community of obsessive fans," Reznor says. "People who have the same maniacal completion problem that Rob and I have playing videogames let them funnel that shit into making our website cool." To put the fans to work, NINs tech team a Glendale, California, outfit called No link ?

Used the APIs for Flickr and YouTube to enable users to connect their NIN accounts with their accounts on those sites.

That meant users could tag items on Flickr and YouTube and have them pop up on NIN.com, where other users will find them neatly ordered and ready for viewing.

Sudjam expects to do the same for Photobucket and Vimeo shortly. Obviously someone has to supervise all this, but Reznor has crowdsourced that function as well.

NIN.com is mostly governed by fan moderators unpaid superfans who enjoy special privileges on the site.

"It becomes a source of pride for them," says Sheridan, "to make sure everything is what it says it is." Next up: Incorporating a wiki into the site.

The most likely candidate is NinWiki, which was built on MediaWiki, the open source software written for Wikipedia.

By putting a fan wiki together with NIN.coms media galleries, which at last count comprised some 30,000 photos and videos, the utility of the data the two sites possess could increase exponentially. "Heres this tour date from three years ago," Sheridan hypothesizes. "Through MediaWiki, the fans have entered in a set list.

Each song is clickable, so you can see every show that song was ever played at.

And its tied into our image and video database, so you can also see every video that song appears in." By making available for free, of course the individual tracks that make up the master recordings of his songs, Reznor has even crowdsourced the remix function.

He released multi-track versions of his songs as early as 2005, but Interscope wasnt happy with the idea of putting fan remixes online. Now that hes been sprung from the label, thats no longer an issue. At last count, NIN.com had 11,000 fan remixes available for streaming or download.

Thanks to an XML feed, you can even subscribe to them as a podcast.

"I doubt Ill ever pay someone to do a remix again," Reznor says, "because theres some amazing stuff just coming out of bedrooms." Free downloads can cost a lot of money to deliver, especially when the options include better-than-CD sound quality.

So for the higher-quality offerings, Reznor turned to BitTorrent "the domain of pirates," he acknowledges, "but its also a great technology that is free." Pirates are no longer the enemy anyway: "Our battle is against download costs." To cover the costs of recording and distributing the album, Reznor also offered The Slip as a limited-edition CD for $10.

Even as he urged fans to download and share the album online, he sold 250,000 numbered copies of the CD.

The album is also available on iTunes for $9.90.

"So we managed to permeate the marketplace," Reznor says, "and we also managed to monetize the album." The one part of NIN.com that Reznor had custom-built is the piece that sits at the center of it all: the database of fan info that has been harvested from the registration process thats required to take full advantage of the site.

That database, created by Sudjam, is what makes the tie-ins with Flickr and YouTube work, but its also given Reznor 2 million e-mail addresses which adds up to a pretty powerful distribution network. "If The Slip had X number of downloads, we know who those people are and well reach out to them with the next thing we have," he says.

A concert coming up in Atlanta?

Its a simple matter to send out e-mails to everyone within a hundred-mile radius of the city.

"That seems to be the most valuable thing you can get a way to reach people," Reznor says. Peter Jenner, one-time manager of Pink Floyd and The Clash and retired head of the No link ?

, agrees. "Theres an enormous value in having a relationship with your fans," he says.

"More value even than in selling your records.

I think old Trents a sharp cookie." Taking that connection mobile was the logical next step.

"We created an app," Reznor says, "that reformats the website to make almost everything on it available in an iPhone-able version and also adds location-based awareness.

This now brings it into the real world, where you can find people if you choose to." When the band toured Europe last year, Sheridan regularly updated the site by posting pictures hed snapped onstage.

It was great, Reznor says: "People felt included. People kind of felt like they were getting postcards from us." The iPhone app takes that a big step further.

NIN.com has a Google Earth plug-in that fans can use to see conversations and photos from across the planet, or at a specific location.

A feature on the iPhone apps Nearby tab will enable them to post messages and photos from their iPhones to the website and have them pop up in Google Earth. All this is a long way from the powerlessness Reznor felt when he was starting out in Cleveland in the 1980s. "One of the biggest wake-up calls of my career was when I saw a record contract," he says.

"I said, Wait you sell it for $18.98 and I make 80 cents?

And I have to pay you back the money you lent me to make it and then you own it?

Who the fuck made that rule?

Oh! The record labels made it because artists are dumb and theyll sign anything like I did." Reznor is still experimenting, and it remains unclear how effective his methods will be for less-established bands.

But by spurring him to try new ideas, ending his label affiliation has given him a tentative new business model as well as a new form of engagement with his fans. If the labels had tried to connect with fans online instead of dragging them into court, he figures, the music industry wouldnt be collapsing today.

But no matter; hes moved on. "My quest in life now is to surround myself with smart, innovative people," he says, "instead of the gangster types who have exploited artists over the years." No link ?

Once again, Trent Reznor (NIN) gives you the blueprint to DIY success in the Digital Age....

Quote: : man you dont know how many artists we are working with that STILL dont have a Twitter, Facebook or Myspace page?

Those are REQUIRED...

Like they are too cool or something for the "internet"...

Guess they are "too cool" to reach out to their fans??

Lol

Quote: : Indaba Online Remix Contest Lets Crowd Work with Celebs By No link ?

October 2, 2009 | Categories: No link ?

, No link ? , No link ?

, No link ? , No link ?

, No link ? No link ? Think of the music collaboration site Indaba like an online, socially-networked version of the audio production suite Pro Tools, which lets people around the world log into the same session to remix, add tracks, record new parts, and so on. Just in time for the weekend, the site unveiled a No link ?

That lets anyone even beginners remix tracks by a wide selection of high-profile artists who themselves collaborated with N.A.S.A., a two-man, North American/South American DJ group. Their latest album, The Spirit of Apollo , includes music from heavy hitters like Kanye West, David Byrne, Chuck D, RZA, The Cool Kids, Ol Dirty Bastard, Tom Waits, DJ AM, KRS-One, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Lykke Li, Santogold, George Clinton, Scarface, and M.I.A.

All of the tracks on the album are fair game for remixing and mashing, with the track stems for every track accessible using No link ?

Or your own audio software.

You also get a PDF document with information about the key and BPM of each song. Contestants have until October 22 to submit their finished tracks combining as many of these elements as they want, after which a voting period will commence.

The best remix as judged by N.A.S.A.

Will appear on the upcoming remix version of the album and its creator will receive $1,000, and the Indaba community will pick honorable mentions. Indaba has run a number of such contests.

Were writing about this one because of all the high-level talent that came together to work on the album.

How else are you going to get to mix David Byrne, Tom Waits, Ghostface Killah, George Clinton, Santogold and M.I.A.

Into the same song?

Working so closely with all of these artists voices and beats would normally get you sued.

Instead, you could net a thousand dollars and a new career as a remix artist. From N.A.S.A.s point of view.

Like a small-scale version of No link ?

, one thousand dollars is a small price to pay for a top-notch remix with confirmed fan appeal. See Also: No link ?

No link ? No link ?

No link ? No link ?

No link ? No link ?

No link ? i bet nobody on here even attempts to enter this!

Quote: : Labels Emphasize Artist-Specific Social Networks, Websites By No link ?

October 5, 2009 | Categories: No link ?

, No link ? , No link ? No link ? Fans can join a social network, share photos and videos, follow mobile and Twitter streams, buy deluxe merchandise, and more on Paramore's site, thanks to a back-end provided by Cisco.

Dont expect your favorite band to delete its MySpace page any time soon, but the general social network is no longer the latest word in fan outreach.

Artists and their labels increasingly see dedicated websites as destinations in their own right, for fans who want to get close to a band, together, without distractions from general content and other people. The idea of artists running their own sites is almost as old as the web itself, but advances in tools have made it possible for labels to run full-featured offerings without relying on networks like MySpace in some cases even creating their own social networks where all conversations center around a single artist. The approach appears to be paying off, with Sony Music and Warner Music Group experiencing big traffic increases to artist-specific websites (EMI and Universal didnt respond to our queries in time to post).

In addition to driving traffic, the sites strengthen the all-important relationship between artist and fan in more ways than a general-purpose social network can, by emphasize an artists own brand rather than diluting it with messaging from other networks and advertisers. The same thought process that goes into a website now is the same thinking that goes into making a record, and designing a [deluxe] package, said Livia Tortella, general manager of Atlantic Records, a division of Warner Music Group.

They look at it as a component of that larger image.

Whether or not Cobra Starship decides to do these little Cobra TV segments, and put their image out there into the world, they would rather that live on their own website because its who they are. Traditionally, Atlantic would hire a web design firm to create a site for each artist individually.

That created a bottleneck in the system that offended bands whose websites were taking longer than others, kept features away from artists whose sites had already launched, and sent fans elsewhere to create profiles.

Atlantic partnered with Ciscos Eos platform to streamline the process with a single platform, so that it wouldnt have to reinvent the wheel each time around. Unlike the unwieldy model of hiring out each design individually, this approach allows the artists themselves (rather than an overworked label lackey) to update and shape content through a variety of modules social networks, photo uploaders, blogs, short text updates, videos, and so on even when theyre touring, using cellphones.

For about two years, Tortella says, Atlantic has been working with Cisco to make these tools more artist-friendly, because talent on the microphone doesnt always translate to web programming skills. Atlantics No link ?

Runs on Ciscos Eos platform, and includes a full-featured social network, a media uploading feature for fans, and modules for tracking the artist via Twitter and his mobile.

According to Atlantic, traffic more than doubled with the new design, according to Tortella.

Meanwhile, traffic to the smaller band Hailstorms site more than tripled with the new features an indication that the approach can help new bands as much or more than established artists. The artist-specific social networking feature is proving particularly effective, said Tortella, because it attracts lots of registered e-mail addresses 17,000 to 25,000 from each of the Eos-backed artist sites Atlantic has launched so far.

In addition, Warner sells merchandise packages thanks to a partnership with No link ?

. Atlantics social networking features are still not where a No link ?

Said they should be: in the product itself.

Artist-specific iPhone apps and the No link ?

Desktop applications Warner has developed with Adobe do let fans talk to each other, but theres clearly lots of room for integrating chat, user profiles, and message boards tighter into the listening experience.

Tortella said Warner would be willing to experiment more with products that themselves include community features. Sony Music is also seeing traffic increases to artist-specific websites.

In June, the labels artist websites cracked the top ten music sites on the web as measured by ComScore Media Metrix, with over 33 million visits and nearly 20 million unique visitors that month. The label credits its success to clean and easy navigation, compelling user experiences that connect fans and artists, and innovative direct-to-consumer features, including an auto-globalization function that translates sites into the local language and connects visitors with other fans from the same area.

Its approach differs from Warners by including advertising, but the overall phenomenon is the same: both labels have shown gains by emphasizing artist-specific websites. To an extent, we could be entering a disaggregation phase of music, as major labels grow new sites, No link ?

, and social networks around specific artists, and indie bands approximate the same approach using Ning, Muxtape, and other tools.

Once MySpace introduced artists and labels to the powerful cocktail of social networking and music, it was only a matter of time until they wanted to own more of that experience. See Also: No link ?

No link ? No link ?

If you don't read it, it won't help

Quote: : Judge: Cellphone Ringtones Are Not Concerts By No link ?

October 15, 2009 | Categories: No link ?

, No link ? , No link ? No link ? A federal judge has dismissed the music industry contention that when a cellphones ringtone begins playing, copyright infringement starts happening since others can hear the song, essentially arguing that a mobile phone is a portable concert hall. That argument meant that millions of mobile phone users were copyright scofflaws anytime anyone called them. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, known as ASCAP, was attempting to wring even more royalties from music lovers, who already pay ringtone royalties when they buy ringtones.

Additionally, ASCAP collects royalty payments for public performances of songs from venues as divergent as a summer camp and a stadium. While ASCAPs much-ridiculed argument in the case was a legal long shot, copyright chaos might have ensued had the royalty-collecting group actually prevailed. The ruling is an important victory for consumers, making it clear that playing music in public, when done without any commercial purpose, does not infringe copyright, No link ?

, a copyright attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. ASCAP was suing AT&T and Verizon in a New York federal court, seeking more revenue for its members. But U.S.

District Judge Denise Cote wrote Wednesday that ASCAP has not shown any infringement of its members rights by the playing of ringtones in the public from Verizons customers telephones. The No link ?

(.pdf) also set aside ASCAPs arguments that it was entitled to double its royalties, from 24 cents to 48 cents, for the reproduction of a ringtone.

The group, which represents artists and songwriters, claimed that the mobile phone carriers were publicly performing the song when it enabled the ringtone to be downloaded by a music fan. ASCAP has failed to raise a question of fact that the downloading of a ringtone from Verizon to a customers cellular telephone is a public performance of a musical work, Cote ruled. Photo: No link ?

/Flickr No link ? ahhh shit

Quote: : Google Closes the Loop on Music Search By No link ?

October 28, 2009 | Categories: No link ?

, No link ? , No link ? No link ? Google Wednesday announced a widely anticipated addition to its popular search engine that reduces the number of steps one has to take between hearing about a piece of music and actually hearing it, thanks to partnerships with a bevy of music services: imeem, Lala, MySpaces recently-acquired iLike, Pandora and Rhapsody. Search for any artist, album or song in the regular Google search box, and Googles new OneBox No link ?

Rolling out to U.S.

Users starting now displays a box of playable search results, so you can hear what something sounds like with one click of the play button. A Google algorithm randomly decides whether your playable search results come from Lala or MySpace.

Both services will let users hear the entire track once for free.

If you search for the same track again, the search box will play a 30-second sample instead.

Lala has offered this feature for awhile on partner sites like Billboard and Pitchfork, but it represents a new strategy for iLike, which MySpace acquired in August.

The site previously allowed only 30-second samples for free in most cases.

As such, a Google spokesman tells us, [full-track] coverage may vary at first, but thats the goal well be working toward. No money changes hands between Google and its partners as part of this deal;

Its a straight trade between the services, which want traffic, and Google, which wants to make its search function more useful to music fans. In the grand context of sweeping changes the digital music revolution has wrought on our culture in general, the primary effect of this announcement is that average web users will be able to hear full tracks, for free, a mere click after entering the name of an artist album or song on Google. Instant gratification is an important aspect of this plan, but its by no means the full deal.

To delve deeper into an artists catalog and find related artists, you can click through to the services.

You can get free full-track playback for millions of songs from imeem if you have a free account.

Try Pandoras free, interactive artist-based station, or check out MySpaces music videos and tour information the first time concert data has been integrated into Google search, according to a MySpace spokeswoman.

Or head to Rhapsody, which offers each user up to 25 full song song streams for free (unlimited full songs for subscribers) and MP3s for sale.

If a given service doesnt have the song in stock, it doesnt surface in OneBox, which could lead to these services offering more exclusive releases. No link ? Were at the beginning, Lala co-founder Bill Nguyen told Wired.com.

I think the music industry and Google are starting to realize now that giving consumers access to what theyre looking for and driving [them to] the right materials is going to be transformative for the space.

Whats happening here is the most frictionless thing since Apple and iTunes. As for the labels, they like Googles new music search function No link ?

It will direct more music fans towards non-infringing, royalty-paying services. Google is the most powerful internet partner that these music services could have, said Warner Music Group executive vice president of digital strategy and business development Michael Nash.

We think that its potentially very significant from the standpoint generating revenue and gives a big boost to legitimate digital music services.

Nash added that while Googles general search function will now highlight these playable search results, its a win-win because it will still surface the No link ?

Prominently. The key to stemming piracy is making it easier to find music than it is to steal it, said imeem founder and CEO Dalton Caldwell in a statement.

By integrating imeem links directly into search results, imeem and Google are making it possible to hear music as soon as you think about it. Google has dabbled with music search before, through the No link ?

Project, the No link ?

Android app, and the No link ?

. Of course youve always been able to search Google for music on various websites.

What makes this different is much deeper integration with its music partners, at the crux of which are those services APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), which allow third parties in this case, Google to hook into their music databases on a granular level. Rather than searching the outward-facing websites of these services, Googles integration with their APIs allows it to search the underlying databases directly, which is how it manages to present these play buttons and artist-targeted links. No link ? MySpace's iLike division created the API that powers MySpace's pop-up player on Google.

And unlike SeeqPods shuttered No link ?

Product (which also put play buttons next to search results), Googles playable search product will be free from copyright scrutiny.

Its partners already have the relevant rights-holder deals in place in order to make this happen. Ali Partovi, senior vice president of business development for MySpace and co-founder of iLike, said that any other company is free to use these same APIs to create a similar service (Yahoos No link ?

Only includes Rhapsody).

But according to Hitwise, 71 percent of all web searches took place on Google last month.

After this new search function rolls out, that percentage could climb higher for music searches. Right now, the service is only available in the U.S., but Google is seeking international music service partners that would allow it to roll out overseas.

A company spokesman had no response when we asked whether it would eventually include links to Amazon MP3 or Apple iTunes. An extra that will resonate with anyone who has sung lyrics to a record-store clerk is that if you dont know the name of a song, you can just enter a snippet of song lyrics to pull it up, thanks to integration with Gracenotes lyrics database.

If you mistype a lyric or other search term, Google will make its best guess. Google does anticipate a few hiccups along the way, in addition to the iLike full-track-playback issue mentioned above. Theres a lot of music out there in the world, and in some instances, we may not return links to the song youre looking for, wrote Google product manager Mur Viswanathan on a No link ?

Announcing the service.

But with the strength of Googles search algorithms and our music search partners efforts to increase the comprehensiveness of their music content, were on track to answer more of your rhymes with the right rhythms. Heres Googles video demonstration of the new feature: No link ?

No link ? No link ?

No link ? No link ? No link ? MySpace's iLike division created the API that powers MySpace's pop-up player on Google. No link ? No link ?

Quote: : Taking on the Man: Musicians Who Sue Their Record Label Views: 110 No link ?

No link ? Carly Simon is bummed that Starbucks didn't push her album as hard they peddle those grande Pumpkin Spice Lattes. The singer-songwriter is suing the coffee king, saying they first didn't place enough copies of her alb, "This Kind of Love" in stores and then later slashed the price.

Starbucks counters by stating, "the title received tepid response from music consumers," Ouch.

See you in court. It's an age-old story between artists and record labels (or coffee retailers turned record labels).

Musicians feel ripped off and under-appreciated by the Man then decide to take matters into their own hands.

Most of the time, they are right: labels have long been in the business of biting the hands that feed them.

It's an unholy arranged marriage that always ends with a bitter musical bride. Apparently, Starbucks sold about 124,000 copies of "This Kind of Love." I find it hard to believe there's anyone else out there clamoring for a Carly Simon album.

My money is on Starbucks to win.

Still, I'm no fan of the Man.

They're more often than not on the wrong side of history and morality. Here are a few of the messier artist-record label divorce stories.

There are many more but I don't want to air everyone's dirty laundry.

I'll leave the mudslinging to all of you (although, I hope one of you talks abbot Courtney Love suing Universal Music in 2000;

That crazy chick has cajones). Prince v.

Warner Bros. Records No one would say that working with Prince is easy.

Yes, he's a musical genius but he's also famously mercurial and stubborn.

His 18-year relationship with Warner Bros.

Endured many strains, including Prince's decision to scrap his 1987 "The Black Album" weeks before its release - and after 500,000 copies had been printed.

However, by the '90s the marriage was becoming increasingly strained.

Warner Bros. blamed Prince for releasing too many albums in close succession.

Prince claimed his label (and its publishing company Warner/Chappell) was not giving his music proper support and that the financial relationship amounted to slavery.

He changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol (copyrighted as Love Symbol #2) and painted the word "slave" on his cheek.

The marriage ended in 1996.

His first post- WB album was fittingly called "Emancipation." No link ? Tom Petty v.

MCA Records By 1978, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had released two albums on independent Shelter Records (formed by musician Leon Russell and producer Denny Cordell) and were enjoying a creative freedom envied by most bands.

Through a series of business transactions, Petty found his record contract being transferred from the humble indie label to music conglomerate MCA.

Petty's position was simple: he worked for Shelter Records not MCA.

MCA didn't see it the same way.

Petty refused to record and went the extra step of declaring bankruptcy in order to void his contract.

He then signed a new deal with another independent label, Backstreet Records, and maintained his creative freedom.

Funnily enough, Backstreet happened to be distributed by MCA.

All one big happy family. No link ? Neil Young v.

Geffen Records Neil Young signed to Geffen Records in 1982.

He was paid the extraordinary fee of $1 million per album and allowed total creative control.

And Young used it.

He made five albums that baffled his audience, drew ire from critics, and angered his label.

His excursions into electronica, rockabilly, and synth rock prompted Geffen to sue Young for $3.3 million.

The lawsuit claimed Young was making recordings "musically uncharacteristic of [his] previous recordings." Can't say I blame 'em.

Does anyone want to hear Neil Young and a vocoder (click on the video if you do)?

Young countersued for $21 million and Reprise Records (Young's old label) provided the escape hatch - buying him out of his contract for $4 million in 1987. No link ?

Fuck a major label....if you need a major these days then you just lazy as fuck and don't deserve success anyways....

Quote: : 12 Tips in no apparent order by No link ?

On September 10, 2009 · No link ? in No link ?

, No link ? Weve included many musicians tips in our e-newsletters.

Here they are in case you missed any of them. 12.

Find the sweet spot. When preparing to record an acoustic guitar, cover one ear and use the other like a microphone, moving around the surfaces of the guitar at a distance of about 18 inches.

Youll hear the tone vary quite a bit.

Move closer in and farther back to find the spot that offers a good combination of warmth and richness in the lower range, while maintaining the sparkle and shimmer.

When you find this sweet spot, get your mic placed as close to it as possible. 11.

Build a deep product catalog. The formula is simple: more products to sell equals more sales revenue opportunity.

So sell ALL your CDs;

Dont let any titles go out of print.

Fans at your gigs may buy more than one disc if you blew them away.

Offer shirts (various designs if possible), hoodies, posters, etc.

Once the fan is at your table, you can upsell them on multiple items.

Sure, inventory costs money, but you dont need to produce large quantities, and they can quickly pay for themselves. 10.

Harness your fan power. Need help with your website?

Someone to call media or radio?

Ask! A fan may have, or know someone who has, the skills you need.

Announce what youre looking for gigs.

Keep a record of where fans live so you can tap into those in markets when you tour.

Fanpower is a force that can help advance your career and create grassroots awareness to help sell CDs, book gigs, bring people to your website, get press, and get you to the next level. 9.

Networking: The Business Card Exchange When its time to exchange business cards, be prepared dont fumble through a pocket full of all the cards youve collected that day, or one of yours that doesnt have scribbled notes on it.

Have your business cards in your left pocket, and everyone elses cards in your right pocket.

Always have a pen available and take notes from your conversations.

When you say, I will call you next week and set an appointment, make a note of what youve said and follow through. 8.

Stay focused online. Between your official band site, social networking sites, and online stores you need a strategy.

If you have the resources to maintain multiple sites and pages, make sure your message is consistent.

If you find yourself neglecting some of your pages or sites, you may be better off paring back to the ones you can manage. 7.

Build a quality email list The most obvious thing you can do to build a fan base is collect email addresses at gigs.

But remember: its not the size of the list, but the quality.

Dont steal names, coerce, or guilt people to sign up just to boost its size.

Collect names from people who truly enjoyed your show and build a list of real fans. 6.

Leverage your down time There are long hours on the road, whether you are traveling from gig to gig or sitting around after sound check.

Get out your laptop and get a yourself a wireless card.

Then you can update your websites, respond to fan email, book shows, make blog/journal posts, and stay connected with the engine that runs your career rather than sitting around killing time. 5.

Maintain the fantasy Youre a star, living the dream, and people want to live vicariously through the artists they like.

When youre on stage or on the road, theyre right there with you.

Dont break the image by telling people youre broke and living with your mother.

Give them insight into your world, but remember, youre not just selling music youre selling a persona. 4.

Consider co-writing For writers that may have limitations, consider co-writing as a possible path to songwriting success.

Creatively, the end result can be much greater than the individual pieces.

Some words on a sheet of paper are just that maybe its a nice poem until somebody comes along and puts a really memorable melody to it.

Suddenly, you have a great song. 3.

Create opportunities for participation In todays ultra-connected environment, fans want more than just your album or to see you perform they want a window into your creative process, and a chance to get involved.

That may mean letting fans choose the photo that goes on an album cover or letting fans sing on your album or contribute a solo.

Be creative and get your fans involved. 2.

Dont schedule your release party! Its best to not set your release date until your CDs are in hand.

If you are going to publicize your album in the traditional press or do a radio campaign, set the official release date at least 8-12 weeks after youve received your copies to give yourself plenty of time to get the album delivered to the press and your online retail locations. 1.

Whos at risk of hearing loss? People who are exposed to 90-120 dB sound levels for various time periods are at risk, which includes people in the music industry (musicians, sound crews, recording engineers, nightclub employees) and people outside the music industry (loud-music listeners, spectators at sporting events, construction workers, motorcycle drivers, regular airline travelers).

People often have high-frequency hearing loss but refuse to wear conventional hearing protection because they need to hear more clearly. No link ? good tips use 'em

Discussion Title: * The NEW Music Biz {2.0} *
Title Keywords: Music  {2.0}  Word  South:  Block  Forum 



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